1. Field of the Invention
A retracting and locking leash assembly of the type used to leash animals, e.g., for walking a dog.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When walking a pet on a leash, it is necessary to control how far the pet can wander from the leash holder. In order to do this, various retractable leashes have been developed to unwind and wind the leash from a housing. Typically, the housing defines a cavity casing and a handle spaced from the cavity casing by connectors surrounding and defining a finger opening. A spool is supported in the cavity casing for rotation about a winding axis and a leash is wrapped about the spool for winding on and unwinding from the spool in response to rotation of the spool. Various embodiments of such an assembly are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,405,683 and 6,694,922 and Application Publication 2003/0029,388, all in the name of Walter et al. These assemblies all include a trigger pivotally supported for controlling rotation of the spool. Such triggers present a control or finger engaging portion that is accessible by only one finger when a larger gripping area is needed for some operators.
Other assemblies have used a trigger slidably supported by the housing for rectilinear movement between a locked position to prevent rotation of the spool and an unlocked position to allow rotation of the spool to wind and unwind the leash to provide a more compact housing, as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,202,510 to Stanish. This arrangement, however, does not include a handle for gripping by the whole hand, which is often need for adequate leverage.